fandomhigh | BWI Portalocity Lounge

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

One of the very few perks of having a meteorologist for a mother was that Amy could almost always avoid weather-related flight delays by relying on her mom for information. That was usually very convenient, but today it meant that due to anticipated late morning storms in northern Texas, Amy had been forced to fly in at ass o'clock in the morning so that she wouldn't run the risk of missing the bus to school. So it looked like she was the first person to reach the Fandom High banner in the airport lounge, and while Amy had always had hopes of one day winning a race, this wasn't quite what she had had in mind.

Armed with an overstuffed duffel bag and her favorite pair of sweatpants (they were decorated with little cartoon strips of bacon!), Amy stifled a heavy yawn and parked herself in a distant corner of the lounge where she could wait for more people to show up.

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//No, seriously,// Jono replied, putting the bag down and glancing back over his shoulder at her. //I mean, the crappy other sort of superpowers that nobody actually wants. Or would it be easier if I were to tell you it's some sort of fancy new radio?//

He'd had a student assume it was that, once, back when he was still a student himself.

"You're not kidding."

Wow. And Amy had thought life couldn't possibly get any stranger than it was in Austin.

"Sorry for the staring," she said, suddenly self-conscious of how rude she was being. "It's just, you know, the closest thing I've ever seen to a... 'superpower' before is my stepsister dealing with bedhead."

//I get that a lot. Er, people not having experience with powers, not bedhead. I'm actually a bit of an insomniac.//

Thank you, Jono. She probably cared a whole lot about that.

//I don't mind the staring, so long as you're not malicious about it. Might as well get it out of your system now, since there's a chance you'll see stranger among the student body once we get to where we're going.//

"And I thought Hester was weird," Amy mumbled. "Um -- no offense. Hang on, stranger how?"

She wasn't sure she liked the idea of stranger.

//Oh, I don't know. Blue? I think we have at least one blue one right now. And wings. We've had a few students with wings over the years.// Jono shrugged his shoulders. //They're all teenagers like you, most likely, but... appearances, and all. Try not to stare too much. They get it from the fresh blood once a semester already, after all.//

He spoke from years of experience.

"Uh-huh." Maybe she shouldn't have asked that last question, because the answer was bringing Amy right back to the land of heavy skepticism. "Well, that sounds really... cool and everything, but I just wanted to go to a regular high school? I didn't know I was signing up for ~~meta~~ Hogwarts. Am I going to be, like, the weird one at this school since I can't fly or sparkle in the sun?"

Oh, Amy. You would learn.

//No, likely not,// Jono replied with a shrug of his shoulders. //I think most of the students don't have powers, these days. At least half. I haven't done the math, I'll admit. I took the last semester off, so I might've missed a few.//

He looked at her, vaguely amused, but at least trying to be polite about it.

//You don't believe a word I'm saying, do you?//

"It's throwing me for a bit of a loop," Amy said with a sheepish shrug. "Sorry to get all ~~meta~~ Scully on you. But seeing is believing, right? If you're right, I promise I won't say I wasn't warned."

But, yeah, she firmly believed he wasn't.

There was an easy way to fix this, Jono mused, as he nodded a little, considering Amy's particular worldview. Of course the school was full of normals from places with no powers at all. They got used to it before long, because the island was so... Fandom.

//I don't want to freak anybody out,// he noted, raising a hand to gesture at his face. //I don't exactly fit in with baseline humans myself, unless I'm bound up like this. Would it help you get that skepticism out of the way now, if I were to show you my face? It's nothing inappropriate, just... jarring. That way, your fellow students might at least be less disarming when you first run into one of the more visually unique ones.//

Amy was going to go out on a limb and conclude that this wasn't a cleft palate thing, which had been her first assumption when he'd arrived.

"I guess it could help," she said warily. She was taking the offer seriously instead of agreeing right off the bat, which led to her adding, "If it's too personal, don't feel obligated or anything. Your privacy is more important than my curiosity, et cetera, et cetera."

//Et cetera, et cetera,// Jono agreed with a shrug. //It's less a matter of my privacy, these days, more a matter of other people's comfort.//

He reached up and tugged the wrappings down from his face, enough to let his flames flicker out.

//Though I have to admit, there's also a bit of a case here for people not throwing water on me all of the time, as well.//

"Whoa."

Her eyes were going wide now. And you couldn't stop them, Jono.

"And that's not some ~~meta~~ Hunger Games dress type of optical illusion or anything?"

She wasn't really clinging to that theory, in all honesty. Those flames looked pretty real, and there was a point when pranks stopped being worth the effort to sustain. Amy was pretty sure they had passed that point.

"It looks like it would hurt," she added, a little dumbly.

Edited 2015-01-02 23:39 (UTC)

Yeah, he kind of figured he'd get that reaction. He was used to it by now. Hell, he was impressed that she was doing the wide-eyed thing instead of freaking out, and she'd gone up a few more ticky points on the 'students to respect' scale, in his eyes.

//It doesn't really,// he offered, satisfied enough that he'd made his point and smoothing the wrappings back down over his face again. //Doesn't feel like much of anything, actually. No need to worry about me, luv. I'm surprisingly difficult to hurt.//

Fear not. She was screaming on the inside.

"Oh. That's... good to know."

Something like that.

"I guess I get why the telepathy comes in handy, then," she mused. "It's kind of like those moms who can pick up cars to keep their kids from getting squished? Only for you it's like an emergency way to communicate instead of an emergency burst of super-strength."

She paused. "I have a feeling that sounded really dumb."

It's okay, Amy. Jono's face had that effect on people. He was used to that.

//Not all that dumb, actually,// he replied with a shrug. //Realized I had the telepathy around the same time I wound up without a mouth, so it was an oddly fortuitous perk to the otherwise horrific mutation, at the time.//

Yes, that was reassuring, Jono.

"Sort of a twist on the other senses being heightened after going blind," Amy ventured. "I'm sorry it happened, though. That really sucks."

Now that she knew it was a sudden mutation and not some kind of weird birth defect.

//Thank you,// Jono replied. //I get by, anyhow.//

It seemed like a slightly more appropriate reply than lamenting the loss of his chances at a musical career, anyway.

//For what it's worth, I think you'll do fine on the island,// he added, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. //We've got a bit of a variety with our students, but I don't think anybody is quite as... shocking... as this, besides. Welcome to Fandom High, Amy.//

"Oh. Thanks, Mr. Starsmore," she said lamely, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "It's probably good to go somewhere I'll blend into the background, anyway. The whole classic high school experience and all."

The whole Homecoming Queen scene had been a lot to live up to, back in Austin. She supposed the popular crowd at Fandom was probably a bunch of werewolves and costumed heroes, if Jono was to be believed.

"But, yeah, thanks." For the quick-and-dirty education. Not to mention the future nightmares about her face catching fire.

Edited 2015-01-03 02:17 (UTC)

Well, Jono had been Prom King his own graduating year...

//Oh, it'll be classic, alright.// Forgive him for sounding a little amused, there. //If you've got any questions at all once you get there, I'll probably be standing around the teachers for a while before the welcome picnic ends. You will be getting assigned a big sibling from the students that have been around for a while, so you won't be wandering completely lost, at least, background or no.//

And if the worst of her nightmares after going to Fandom High for a while were about her face catching fire, she'd be doing pretty good.

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BWI Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

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